Each year, over 4 billion coffee cups head to landfill because the plastic lining means they cannot be recycled. I will bring my own cup for take-away coffee or tea which can be used again and again to help bring an end to this landfill madness.

Canada joined the CleanSeas campaign and committed to continue targeting pollution prevention, conducting research on the impact of microplastics, funding community-based programs (including shorefront clean-ups), and engaging with partners at home and abroad. In addition, in June 2017, the Government of Canada published the 'Micorbeads in Toiletries Regulations' (pursuant to the 'Canadian Environmental Protection Act' of 1999), which will prohibit the manufacture, import and sale of toiletries used to exfoliate or cleanse that contain plastic microbeads.

France joined and contributes to the Clean Seas Campaign. France is enforcing a ban on single use plastic bags, cups and plates, to be fully implemented by 2020, and launched the 'International coalition to reduce plastic bags pollution'.

Costa Rica joined the CleanSeas campaign. The Government of Costa Rica also pledged to advance with the implementation of its Integrated Waste Management Law and established the National Strategy on Separation, Recovery and Valorization of Waste 2016-2021 and the National Plan to discourage the use of plastics: prevention, reaching out, awareness raising.

Israel joined the CleanSeas campaign. Israel also promotes a Clean Coast program, whose budget has been recently increased threefold, with the goal to have 70% of Israel’s beaches clean 70% of the time by 2018. Israel is also implementing the Plastic Bag Law since January 2017, banning the distribution of plastic bags with a width of less than 20 microns and introducing charges for bags with a width between 20-50 microns. Israel is also planning to expand its national marine monitoring program to generate improved knowledge of marine litter.

Jordan joined the CleanSeas campaign and issued a new law in 2017, aiming to ban the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags and to compel all establishments to use biodegradable bags. Jordan will also declare the Aqaba Marine Park a natural reserve.

The UK joined the CleanSeas campaign and recently published a Litter Strategy for England (April 2017) and completed the consultations on proposals to ban microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products. In addition, the UK has introduced a charge on single use plastic bags in England in 2015.

From August 1st till 15th the North Sea Foundation organizes the Boskalis Beach Cleanup Tour where the entire Dutch North Sea coast is cleared of waste. The Cleanup kicks off simultaneously in Cadzand and Schiermonnikoog. Volunteers take on 30 stages in 15 days, where half walk towards the north, the other half towards the south of Holland. After two weeks the two teams meet and finish in Zandvoort, where the results of this year’s Beach Cleanup will be presented.Together with 6.377 volunteers, the North Sea Foundation cleared 57.426 kilos off the Dutch beaches, since the first edition in 2013. This boils down to over 10.000 waste bags full of waste.

Results from 13 years of beach litter monitoring by the North Sea Foundation show that on average 375 waste items per 100m are found. Over 93% of these waste items consist of plastic. Marine mammals, birds and fish see the plastic waste as food, which can lead to ingestion and potentially fatal consequences. Marine waste harms over 600 marine species. The waste problem is becoming so substantial that the UN predicts that in 2050 99% of the seabirds will have ingested plastic. In The Netherlands 93% of the petrels has plastic in their stomach. Young seals also face this problem. Research shows that over 12% of the Dutch regular seals has plastic in their stomachs.

As part of my commitment to get drastic with plastic, I will stop using plastic bags for shopping and use a recycled bag or a basket instead. I will ask my friends and family to do the same. Marine litter harms over 600 species, including turtles who mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and eat them!

Did you know that 60-90% of marine litter is plastic? I will call on local companies to design and package their products with as little plastic as possible. For those who continue to use over-the-top packaging, I will take photos and share them with the #CleanSeas hashtag on social media to raise the pressure.

In bathroom shelves across the world lie toothpaste and facial scrubs packed with tiny plastic pieces that threaten marine life. Up to 51 trillion microplastic particles are already in our oceans! I will use an app, such as Beat the Microbead, to replace personal care and cosmetics products that contain microbeads and write to companies that are not using natural alternatives.

Each year the world throws away over 1 trillion plastic bags that kill animals, clog our rivers and pollute our oceans. I will monitor my own use of plastic for a week and commit to reducing it and call on leaders and shops I visit to switch away from plastic bags, cups, cutlery, straws and plates!

In America alone, we use 500 million plastic straws every day. Many of those straws end up in our oceans, polluting the water and harming sea life. If we don’t act now, by 2050 plastics in the ocean will outweigh the fish. One small change can have a big impact. 2017 is the year to start a cultural movement to impact real policy change. With so much going on in the world that seems unsolvable, here’s a solution that’s easily within reach: Stop using plastic straws.

Somar Tourism, together with APAE (association of parents of special children) and the Secretary of the Environment of the Municipality of Cabo Frio, Brazil, is promoting a campaign to raise awareness of non-use of plastic, which will conclude on September 15 with a clean-up of Praia do Forte.
We aim to persuade both citizens and tourists to reduce their use of plastic and keep the beach clean.

https://www.facebook.com/Littlebluefeet/
We motivate people to clean up one piece of trash for each walk, run or walk with the dog they take. Each Piece of trash we gather is one less to end in the river and utlimately in the ocean. In our City, we are also planning a clean up day in September with volunteers citizen to clean up cigarette butts and plastic.

Refuse / refill -Not buy bottled water - use purification tablets if necessary when travelling, a water bottle / camel pack when out and about.
Refuse plastic bags, when purchasing fresh fruit and veggies from supermarket dont use plastic wrapped produce and don't put loose produce in plastic bags!
Recycle all plastic that I end up with!
Start a #cleanseas campaign when I return to NZ.

Do an eco-friendly walk & pick up 3 pieces of plastic litter & deposit it in the nearest bin. This action prevents it from washing or blowing down the drain and entering our oceans. Picking up the plastic helps save our endangered turtles from ingesting it and also keep our creeks and rivers clean.

The Belgian Federal Government is preparing a national action plan to combat marine litter. The Plan will aim to prevent macro and micro litter, to reduce land based as well as sea based sources and will also contain provisions for collaboration between the different governmental bodies (local, regional and federal governments and internationally). A number of awareness raising and educational initiatives are also foreseen both at the federal and the regional level.

So many times we grab half a dozen plastic bags, put a couple of things in each, then tie a knot and take it home, only to rip it open and throw it away. It is a terrible use of resources. We should reuse plastic bags, or event better yet, use mesh bags that you can use and reuse.

I will organize a cleanup on the beach or the river bank with my local community and use the Trash Hunter App to see who is the biggest polluter in our area. We will then let the media know what we collected and make sure the trash is properly disposed of. Unless we act, by 2050, an estimated 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastic.

Not one single organisation is responsible for waste prevention and management, nor can one single organisation solve the issues of waste.

Indonesian Waste Platform (IWP) is a 'hub' connecting stakeholders from all sectors, promoting and facilitating cross-sector collaboration, promoting the forming a common shared vision, strategy and action plans.

Indonesian Waste Platform is based on co-ownership and is endorsed by the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry and the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs.

We need you to connect, we need you to share your news, expertise, questions, comments, lessons learned

Every year hundreds of thousands of pieces of litter are dropped or incorrectly disposed of by people who do not understand the consequences or who can't be bothered to do the right thing for the environment.
I know where my recycling points are and how my kerbside recycling collection works at home and I commit to using them.
I will not create excuses for myself that it's not convenient or that I am 'too busy' to do the right thing and I will help other to do the same.
I will be the change that I want to see and I will lead by my own actions.

It doesn't matter whether you live on the coast or the nearest ocean is thousands of kilometers away--plastic can find its way to the sea from even the most land-locked parts of the world, traveling by gravity, wind, streams, and rivers. I commit to making sure that the plastic I use ends up where it belongs--a recycling bin or recycling facility, where it can find new life in a new product, instead of hundreds of years on the high seas. Remember, One more bottle in a recycling bin means one less bottle threatening the health and beauty of the ocean.

As a swimmer in open waters, I am very sensitive about the issues of plastic pollution in seas (and lakes). I have already turned a few times my long swims (also in cold/icy waters) into "eco-swims" to raise awareness on that.
When planning for an eco-swim, we typically organise concurrent groups of people and pupils doing clean-ups on the shore, while I swim my way to link different landmarks (e.g. 2 capes, 2 harbours, or crossing a lake).
We plan using the #keepitclean hashtag to make the message straight, and this will be sometimes complemented by the #keepitcold one, which we already use in cold/icy swims to sensitise against climate change.
We'd like to connect to more and more open water swimmers, to make a big community, swim under the common branding of "clean seas" and say it loud and clear: "keep the oceans we swim in clean!"

Plastic ingestion is one of the main causes of sea turtles death, simply because plastic bags look very similar to jellyfish..... staple food of sea turtles. Join "Desembólsate por las tortugas marinas" to replace plastic bags with cloth bags and turn the tide on plastic

650,000 tonnes of discarded fishing nets are believed to be adrift in our oceans as Ghost Nets. Those nets tend to drift with wind and currents for years while continuing to attract fish, sea birds and turtles. Eventually they end up on a reef, destroying the reefs entire eco system.
We need to support the fishing industry to find new ways to recycle their nets instead of discard them in the ocean as debris.
We need to support the industry trying to innovate around recycled nylon from fishing nets.

We, the Iceland Nature Conservation Association, through our campaigns are convincing our government that actions for saving the ocean are terribly urgent. Ocean acidification, higher ocean temperatures, climate change, overfishing are all global problems which threaten the future of Iceland as a fishing nation. Iceland must make its voice heard.

Our group gets together every couple of weeks to remove trash and litter from our dunes and beaches. In 2 months the group has grown from 2 people to more than 100. We have removed tonnes of waste from protected natural areas in Calambrone and Tirrenia. Our next appointment will be March 19, 2017.

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This campaign platform is open to governments, governmental entities, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, communities, the private sector and individuals who wish to commit to specific actions in support of the #CleanSeas campaign. By committing to an action you acknowledge that UN Environment may follow up with you about your commitment.